Ion implanters are conventionally utilized to place a specified quantity of dopants or impurities within semiconductor workpieces or wafers. In a typical ion implantation system, a dopant material is ionized, therein generating a beam of ions. The ion beam is directed at a surface of the semiconductor wafer to implant ions into the wafer, wherein the ions penetrate the surface of the wafer and form regions of desired conductivity therein. For example, ion implantation has particular use in the fabrication of transistors in semiconductor workpieces. A typical ion implanter comprises an ion source for generating the ion beam, a beamline assembly having a mass analysis apparatus for directing and/or filtering (e.g., mass resolving) ions within the beam, and a target chamber containing one or more wafers or workpieces to be treated.
Various types of ion implanters allow respectively varied dosages and energies of ions to be implanted, based on the desired characteristics to be achieved within the workpiece. For example, high-current ion implanters are typically used for high dose implants at low to medium energies, and medium-current to low-current ion implanters are utilized for lower dose applications, typically at higher energies.
As device geometries continue to shrink, shallow junction contact regions translate into requirements for lower and lower energies of the ion beam. Additionally, requirements for precise dopant placement have resulted in ever-more demanding requirements for minimizing beam angle variation, both within the beam, and across the substrate surface. For example, in certain applications, implants at energies down to 300 electron Volts are desirable, while concurrently minimizing energy contamination, maintaining tight control of angle variation within the ion beam as well as across the workpiece, and also while providing high workpiece processing throughput.
Hybrid scanned beams can provide very good dose uniformity at high throughput, whereby the ion beam is electrically or magnetically scanned relative to the workpiece, and whereby the workpiece is mechanically translated through the scanned ion beam. However, for low energy implants, the throughput of workpieces through the system is limited by the size of the ion beam and the large scan amplitudes utilized to provide full over-scan of the workpiece by the ion beam.